Last semester, middle and high school girls were informed that they would need a female staff member to check the restroom stalls immediately after use. This was due to select students bullying each other with writing on the stalls. This was a difficult adjustment for the female population of Tok School as students now have to wait for an available staff member in order to use the restroom.
Students have expressed discomfort towards this new policy since they have to disrupt the office or another staff member in order to use the restroom. Part of this discomfort could be that sometimes the adult will stand in the washroom and wait while students are actively using it, instead of waiting outside the door for them to leave to check. Multiple girls have expressed disdain towards this new policy.
Nadine Thomas, a freshman at Tok School, noted, “I don’t like it because an adult comes in the bathroom every time you do. I don’t like it.”
Classmate Joan Adkins added, “I do not like it because I didn’t have anything to do with it. I think they should drop the whole situation because nobody’s going to confess.” Adkins is referring to the deal Principal Benedict made with the girls in which the bathroom policy will revert to normal as soon as the graffiti confesses to their transgressions.
Shania Issac, a sophomore, also said, “When we use the bathroom we feel so uncomfortable having someone wait outside for us to be done using the bathroom. I feel as if the girls learned their lesson and can be more responsible now.”
Dawson Nelson simply stated, “I don’t use the bathroom at school anymore because of this.”
Though the female population of the middle and high school understands why it's important to ensure the threats and harassment that occurred don’t happen again, the girls deeply dislike this newly enforced policy. The females of middle and high school are disappointed that this is the solution for this issue, and that horrific comments were written about certain girls in the first place. They are confident that if this policy was abolished, the select few students who committed these harassments would permanently stop.
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